Horrible lag that no one else seems to have (possibly Charter)

[Frost_axe]

I talked to an envoy today describing my situation. Basically I'm lagging terribly. It can take me up to 4 seconds to get out of combat, then to heal, and then to have move too far to heal in PKL (even though I stood fairly still). Sometimes the lag spikes to around 2000+, and sometimes I run in place seeing horrible lag, while it says it's only 160 ms. The only constant seems to be packet loss, which ranges from 1-14%.

I eliminated my WiFi as the culprit, as I wired my connection to this computer. I also changed routers, and got the same problem.

I did talk to an envoy and they said they weren't getting reports like mine, so chances are it's not the AC servers (though I noticed it around patch time. Maybe it's possible that something that was changed in the client is now having an unseen effect on certain computers and ISPs. I have not yet eliminated charter communications or a faulty router somewhere as the culprit, however, when I ping the IPs of the AC servers, it seems to be constantly at 90, however the lag in game makes it barely playable. It is, of course, much worse in peak hours, and the type of lag is usually me lagging, but seeing things going on around me, which makes me think it's a bad upstream connection, and charter just "upgraded" their upstream. Any thoughts or help is much apreciated, as I'm at the point of not being able to play AC (the only game it seems to happen with).

Thanks.

[Frost_axe]

Someone please respond to this. I thought the had gone away on patch day but it appears it's returned. I keep getting thrown back constantly, after running in place. Monsters are crowding around me, and I'm dying constantly b/c of this. It could be my ISP, but whatever it is, it's an upstream problem.

I really do think it's either the servers or the way my client is handling packets, as it's better when the AC servers are under light load.

[SwampFoxGB]

:( You are not alone..........we also have Charter. We have 2 pcs and on the old Win98 P3 700 I have excellent bandwidth.....upstream and downstream; however, this is not the pc we use to play AC. We use a P4 with WinMe and the upstream on both is the same but the downstream is drastically different!

We get over 1400 kbps downstream with the old pc and I am lucky to get 56 kbps downstream with the newer pc. No one can explain why. Both pcs go thru a Linksys cable/router. Even when we hook the newer pc directly to the cable modem, I get these speeds. I've been searching for an answer for over a year now!

Good luck................

[Frost_axe]

Originally posted by SwampFoxGB
:( You are not alone..........we also have Charter. We have 2 pcs and on the old Win98 P3 700 I have excellent bandwidth.....upstream and downstream; however, this is not the pc we use to play AC. We use a P4 with WinMe and the upstream on both is the same but the downstream is drastically different!

We get over 1400 kbps downstream with the old pc and I am lucky to get 56 kbps downstream with the newer pc. No one can explain why. Both pcs go thru a Linksys cable/router. Even when we hook the newer pc directly to the cable modem, I get these speeds. I've been searching for an answer for over a year now!

Good luck................

Well mine started around the beginning of the last patch, and it's a very specific kind of lag. Given that charter just upgraded their bandwidth, I have theorised that it's possible that charter/surfboard modems/AC Servers/AC Client don't get along, and somehow, the packets are getting bottlenecked on the upstream. The reason I say this is because my messages take long to send, and I lag in place, but others move around me. It would also explain the packet loss. For example: Signal is sent to servers too quickly or in an odd way, signal is sent back too quickly, the client chokes, packets are lost, and thus, the ping is stable at times, but the lag is unbearable. I am trying to see if the QoS packet scheduler will help, and the next thing I will try is bandwidth limiting, only a few k/s to see if it's the new upload speed that's doing it. I did have high upload before, without these problems, but that was 2 years ago. It's possible it's a rare issue with charter and AC, and thus no one really knows/cares about it. I'll let you know what happens with my theories.